The Cosmic Castaways
by MetalGodlv66
Summary: What would happen if Gaara and Lee's fight during the chunin exam was interrupted and both of them were sent to another dimension into the future where they need to save a galaxy and defeat the evil Emperor? Well find out :) And yes, this story is inspired by the song Cosmic Castaway. Enjoy
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Transfer

Lee's muscles were constricting and expanding from the constant speed he had to keep. Gaara's sand was keeping up with him just fine and Lee had to find an opening. He punched, kicked, jumped and swept at Gaara, but to no avail. The sand surround him like an invisible orb of protection. Lee narrowed his eyes trying to figure out what to do, he kept attacking. While fighting and keeping Gaara occupied, Lee was running simulations in his head. _Surely there is some sort of crack in his impregnable defense,_ thought Lee. Lee punched the sand shield for the umpteenth time, but something made him pause for just a half second as he was pulling back his fist. When his fist hit the sand it felt like the sand was tightening around him, but he was too quick, and figuring out what Gaara's intentions were he darted back farther and farther as a sand hand slithered after him. Lee jumped up onto the statue of the hands clasped together to form a jutsu and stood there watching Gaara's sand hand slither back.

"Lee! Take them off!" yelled Guy as his thumb was extended and his smile shined through the lighted arena.

Lee was shocked by this news, _Guy-sensei is actually proposing to do something like that_? Lee couldn't believe it. Gaara stood there with his emotionless face as he mentally prepared himself for whatever unexpected attack was about to come, while Sakura was just confused. _Take it off,_ questioned inner-Sakura, _what could Lee possibly take off? The only thing he's wearing is his clothes—WHAT! No way Guy-Sensei is a total perv like Kakashi!_

"B…But Master Guy! You said never to do that unless I was defending the lives of the people who are precious to me!"

"It's alright!" yelled Guy giving another huge thumbs up with teeth sparkling brighter than the sun, "I'll allow it!"

Lee just stared at his sensei, trying to take in what he just heard, and when he finally understood he let out a big grin as he began to roll up his leggings.

 _NOOOOO!_ Screamed inner-Sakura, _he is a perv!_

Lee rustled a bit more before holding up two ugly looking weights that wrapped around his legs. Both that encouraging words to fuel his youthful spirit into action, and without further ado Lee dropped them off the statue. The spectators stared in awe and confusion as the weights dropped. Some were expecting something awesome to happen next, while others sneered and just threw it off as something meaningless, how something like weights could affect the fight where he was losing. But everybody was shocked when the weights hit the floor of the arena and a massive dust cloud exploded as the weights crushed and cracked the stone floor below. Everyone in the stands had bug eyes and mouths open as Lee jumped and practically vanished from their vision.

Gaara waited for Lee to move, having his arms folded in front of his chest and his sand shield shifting all around him. His eyes didn't change at all when Lee leapt off the statue and disappeared. His sand deflected his punch from behind, but still something was different; Lee had gotten faster. In fact Lee was fading in and out of Gaara's field of vision, making it almost impossible to predict where he would end up next, but Gaara's naturally forming sand shield always protected him which irritated Lee.

Lee stopped and stood, resting for a few seconds as he and Gaara had a stare off. Each one not budging, just looking in each other's eyes as if it turned into a staring competition. Then, Lee darted out of vision again, this time getting faster as he punched and kicked at Gaara's sand. In fact it seemed that the sand was having a difficult time keeping up with Lee until he jumped and bicycle kicked Gaara's head to the ground. The arena went silent as Kankuro cursed silently and the Konoha kids were smiling with hope, but that didn't last. Gaara's head shot up as he started laughing maniacally. Everyone saw his face shedding sand. The rest of his sand was slowly coming towards his body, covering it up to create a sand encased Gaara.

 _The other Gaara,_ thought Kankuro, _is totally awake now._

Lee looked up to his master in the stands. Guy looked down at his protégé and gave him a nod. Lee smirked as he started to unwrap a bit of his wrappings around his wrists. _It's time,_ he thought, _to kick it up a level with the Lotus._ Lee bent his body as he readied himself to charge, and Gaara was preparing to defend with that evil smile on his face, his eyes wide with murdering intent. Then, Lee dashed toward him, even faster than ever before making him completely invisible to the other Konoha ninja kids. Gaara jumped and attacked Lee as he was nearing, both in the air trying to get to the other first when a bright white light illuminated around them, blinding everybody in the arena. A low hum could be heard as the light shined more and more, before dissipating leaving nothing but a broken, cracked arena that does not have Gaara or Lee anymore.

Lee made the first strike and punched Gaara across his sand encrusted face, barely making a dent. Gaara giggled as his sand grabbed onto Lee's fist and tried to squeeze it, breaking it as blood spurted out of the sand. Lee cried out in agony. He quickly shot his leg up and knocked Gaara's head back, freeing his broken hand, and moving away from him. Gaara gave out an annoyed growl as his fist turned into spikes, from the sand, and tried to slice Lee, but Lee was too quick and from behind shot Gaara up into the air with a powerful kick, and within a millisecond was underneath Gaara's floating body and wrapped his wrappings around Gaara's entire body, plummeting toward the ground with his body cushioning Lee's fall.

Lee got up ready to fight back when he finally noticed his surroundings. He saw that he and Gaara were not in the chunin arena anymore, but were in a metal room. It was similar to the chunin arena in that it had balconies for spectators, but there was a loud buzzing, or was it humming, near the back of the place. Confusion set in as Lee began to worry about his precious Guy-sensei, but before he could let out a question Gaara smacked him into a wall from a powerful sand fist. Lee could feel his body hurting, he was pretty sure that at least three parts of his body broke, but he couldn't be sure what broke.

"Over here!" someone shouted, rousing the attention of not only Lee but Gaara too.

A woman in a very boring gray uniform arrived at the scene of the fight. Lee couldn't hear what she was saying, but it sounded like she was telling them to stop. Whatever she said it didn't seem like Gaara was happy about it, because almost immediately after her sentence sand shot up and encased her whole body. Lee saw Gaara's hand close into a tight fist and heard at the same time the woman screaming, and just like that her scream stopped and the sand encasing her turned an ugly rusted color. Lee was angry, _that woman did nothing and Gaara just killed her for no reason!_ In a flash Lee was on Gaara again, but this time a blind fury guided his fighting. Gaara swatted Lee's futile kicks and leaps as his sand was slowly but surely cutting his opponent and hurting him, weakening him. He couldn't help but smile as his sand was destroying the green imp.

They heard more voices in the distance, and soon three men and two women were appeared where the first woman was. They stared in horror, a woman's scream rang out, as they stopped to see the two fighting down below, and their comrade dead and bloody up where they were. Gaara's sand had dissipated and gathered back to him so the other people were able to look dead on the woman's corpse and what Gaara really did to her. One of the men flew into a rage and screamed bloody murder at Gaara. He whipped out his blaster and started shooting, not caring who he hit. The laser blasts decimated the sand barrier and nicked Gaara's arm. His eyes widened as a new sense of pain spread through his body and turned to see who would dare challenge him. The man kept shooting, and this time Gaara was evading every blast as his sand drew him up and up until he was at their level just a few feet from them. The man with the blaster was shaking in his boots as his cohorts slowly receded behind him. Gaara's eyes looked dead, as if he was a monster, but what scared the man the most was that this monster was a mere boy, just a child, and already he was as cold as any infamous serial killer in galactic history.

Lee was panting down below, his fight with Gaara had really wrecked him and he wasn't sure what he could possibly do now. He did have an idea, but with Guy-sensei gone he wasn't sure he should use it. However, Gaara was getting closer and closer to the man who held a blaster at him point blank. The man yelped a most unmanly yelp as he fired once more at Gaara and while once again evading the laser blast Gaara sent his sand through the air and into the man's skin. The man reacted violently as he dropped his blaster and started scratching at his skin, swatting at it as if ants were crawling up them. Gaara just stared at him, his face dead and expressionless as his sand crawled through his cuts and orifices, making their way through his blood stream and gathering on his heart. The man's heart was pounding fast, nearing heart attack levels, but he felt the things in his body move up his blood stream sending shivers throughout his body. His heart grew heavy and his eyes were open so wide they could pop out. Gaara showed the man his hand, and with a quick tightening of his fist the man dropped dead with blood pouring from his mouth.

One of the women who appeared with the man came back with tears in her eyes. She threw a heavy objects at Gaara's head, hitting him and breaking his natural sand shield. Gaara closed his eyes and his sand lost its power as he fell toward the ground. Lee watched in horror as Gaara landed with a cloud of sand bowing up into the air. Lee hobbled closer to Gaara to see how alright he was. When he was standing over him he sighed in relief as he saw that he was alive and was only unconscious. Gaara's breathing becoming slower as his chest went up and down, so slow that Lee thought that Gaara was sleeping…


	2. Chapter 2

**So originally I had a much longer plan for this chapter, but I didn't realize just how long it would be until I wrote it so I split it up into two parts. Hopefully you like part 1, but I fear it's similar to an info dump episode...**

* * *

Chapter Two

Nobody would know you screamed part I

Lee sighed a sigh of relief once he saw that Gaara was unharmed. His natural forming sand shield had cushioned his fall. Looking up at the balcony, Lee could see strangely dressed people gather over the bloody remains of the man and the woman. Lee closed his eyes and sent a silent prayer to the two recently departed. He looked back down at Gaara, swearing that he wouldn't let that psychopath kill anyone else. His head sprung up at the noise of someone yelling, Lee's fists finally opened up, leaving puncture marks where his fingers were digging in.

"ASDLKNC VALSDFKI! !" yelled the man.

"What?" Lee yelled back puzzled. The man called out to him again, and again he couldn't understand what he was saying. _What language is he speaking,_ thought Lee. Another person on the balcony looked down at him and tried talking, a woman, and it sounded different from what the man was saying, but still Lee couldn't figure out what language they were using. He scratched his head. _Man, if I can't understand what he is saying, and he can't understand what I am saying, how are we going to communicate?_

The man and the woman were now arguing with each other, Lee arched one of his bushy eyebrows at them as he watched the man finally throw his arms up in exasperation and leave. The woman looked down at him one last time before following the man. Lee wasn't sure what to do.

Not really sure how to deal with this situation, Lee decided to look around. Ever since first getting there Lee and Gaara were too preoccupied with their fight to notice that they were in a different place. While it resembled the chunin arena, it was also completely different. The room he was in was humongous, at least three times bigger than where he and Gaara were fighting back home. The whole place seemed to be made out of metal and everything was smooth. No corners jutting out, no sharp objects anywhere, just one big room where the architecture just seemed to flow and never stop.

His mouth was open as he was gaping at his new surroundings when a woman in a lab coat walked out toward him. She was wearing heals and could easily be heard with each footstep she took. Lee concentrated his attention on her. He wasn't sure if she was friend or foe, his body went into the simplest battle stances as she came closer and closer toward him. In her hands she held a metal collar, it was open and seemed to spit in the middle. Strange glowing lights were integrated within the collar and made Lee very nervous. When the woman stopped right in front of him she held up her hand in a sign of peace. Lee dropped his guard, but his eyes showed that he was still watching her for any unanticipated attacks. She started talking to him, he couldn't understand her foreign language, but it sounded so soothing to him that he allowed her to do what she wanted. The collar in her hands was quickly fastened around his neck, the cold of the metal it was made from surprised Lee and he jumped a bit and let out a not too manly squeak. Next, the woman pressed the blue light off to the side on the collar and Lee felt tiny pricks all around his neck. His hands darted to his throat reflexively and blood started to ooze from under the collar. He coughed and choked as a strange sensation was going through his neck. Finally it stopped and Lee looked up angrily at the lady, but before he could argue she implanted a small object in each of his ears. A loud sharp sound echoed throughout his eardrums and Lee quickly put his hands to his ears reflexively. Once Lee recovered from that predicament he looked up at the woman again and cautiously looked for any sign that she was going to 'attack' him again.

"What was that all about!?" he finally yelled at her taking a fighting pose.

"I was only equipping you with the right resources to communicate with us." She replied much to Lee's surprise.

"Wha—" Lee said but his brain was processing too much too fast. "Y-You can speak my language?" he said with enthusiasm.

"No. I am forcing you to speak our language. I am afraid that your language doesn't appear to exist in our data logs."

"Dayda logs?"

"Nevermind," said the woman sighing at his incompetence. "My name is Yvette and I would like to be the first to welcome you to the _Nevermore_."

"Nevermore?" asked Lee even more confused.

Yvette took a deep sigh, pinching the bridge of her nose. _So he's going to be one of_ _ **those**_ _people,_ she thought. She hated incompetence, and apparently the boy dressed in green spandex in front of her was of the extra special kind where they will need everything spelled out to them. There was only one way to handle them.

"Follow me," she commanded.

"Where are we—"

"No questions. Shut up and follow."

With a frown on his face, and his brain working overtime to figure out what was going on, Lee followed behind the mean old lady and figured that she'll tell him when it's time.

Once the two left the room the man from the balcony and three others arrived. He barked orders and tried to get everything done in an orderly fashion. A young woman ran to Gaara's unconscious body and quickly examined him, stunned to find that he was barely hurt. She quickly signaled the two other men to come to her. They held two long silver rods and laid them out on either side of Gaara. Each pressed a little button on the ends of each rod and light shot out and sat underneath Gaara. The blueish hue of light connected the two rods and formed their portable stretcher. The woman signaled the men again and this time they pressed another button. A small metal arch shot out of the middle of the stretcher and connector the two rods. It covered the midsection of Gaara's body and continuously ran a red light from head to foot and back again on Gaara. The men each took one end of the stretcher and heaved hoed Gaara up and walked him out of the room. The red light monitored his body vitals as they transported him into the infirmary where they left the woman to tend to the unconscious blood thirsty fighter. But, unbeknownst to everyone, Gaara's sand was slowly gathering on his skin making a second layer.

Down the many corridors of the _Nevermore_ , Yvette was leading Lee in silence to places unknown. As they walked Lee could only gape in awe at what was around him. So many sights left him speechless, so many gadgets and do-hickies he didn't know about. His eyes were wide with excitement at his new surroundings, but as he continued to follow Yvette he couldn't help but wonder what happened. Guy and the rest were nowhere to be found, it seemed like it was just him and Gaara who had been transported to another world. _Was this part of Gaara's justsu, there is still so much I do not know about him._

Yvette led Lee around a corner and pulled him from his thoughts has he entered a room that was almost completely made of glass. Lee stared open mouthed as he ran up and placed his head on the glass looking out into the distance. An overhead light was the only light source, and beyond the glass was nothing but darkness with holes of light. Lee's head whipped in every direction trying to take it all in. He wasn't sure what to make of it, it was beautiful and yet scary, familiar and yet not, comforting but cold.

"It looks like the night sky," he whispered.

"That's because it is," said Yvette ignoring Lee's dumbfounded expression, "when you look up into the night sky we call that space. Right now you are on a ship that traverses the dark heavens, essentially you are travelling through the night sky."

Lee's eyes got bigger, his bushy eyebrows arched in amazement. He quickly took out his notebook and started scribbling what he just learned, word for word. _Hm, perhaps he isn't as incompetent as I first guessed,_ thought Yvette. She gave a small smile, one that Lee did not catch, and continued telling him the amazing stories about space with Lee enthusiastically shouting out his excitement every time he learned a new fact.

"You're hurt?" asked Yvette as she just noticed Lee's limp and slightly bloody spandex. She was surprised that he was able to act like nothing was wrong, from her eyes she could tell his body wasn't in the best condition to move.

"Yeah, but I'm fine. I'm a fast healer."

"That may be, but I'd like to do some tests just to make sure."

"Tests? Um…what kind of tests?"

"Follow me," she said as Lee nervously limped behind her thinking what she could possibly mean. They went down more corridors and Lee wondered just how big the ship really was. It wasn't long until Yvette got to the place she wanted to, and she led Lee into a pure white room with strand futuristic machines. Lee was speechless. Yvette told him to lay down on the nearest table, which he did, and Lee froze as a light shined up and down his body. _Is this an attack?! Was this her plan all along, to get me to drop my guard and destroy my body with these….things?_

"Please don't move," she said as Lee was twitching and looked like he might fly into battle mode. "I am merely checking your damage."

The computer that Yvette was in front of showed Lee's internal body images and to her surprise she found many bones broken, fractured, and even some muscle ruptures. She gave a quick glance to the not so tense boy. _How is he still able to move?_ Clearly there was much to learn of these life forms, but first she had to fix him.

"Close your eyes and relax," she commanded. Lee didn't obey, his body tensed up even more and his brain was working hard trying to figure out what she was really up to. Yvette sighed as she figured what he was thinking and said, "Don't worry, I'm not going to hurt you. I'm a doctor and I can help you recover."

At this Lee relaxed a bit. He allowed his body to lay sprawled out on the table and closed his eyes putting all the trust in the world into Yvette. She pressed a button on her keyboard and glass started to cover Lee's table. Lee didn't move, he put his trust in Yvette and he was going to make sure that he listened to her. Once the glass fully encompassed Lee's body, Yvette typed in a sequence and an orange hue was shined from Lee's table. His mind was starting to relax, feeling light. His breathing became shallow and regular and soon enough he was fast asleep. The, an invisible gas was released that held millions of unseen nanites that would enter Lee's body and repair all the rips, ruptures, and cracks that he had suffered.

"See you in ten to twenty minutes," Yvette said as she left the room.

Yvette walked into the corridor with the glass door closing behind her automatically with a loud hiss. Her footsteps echoed down the halls, and soon enough she stood on the bridge of the _Nevermore_. There, she found Jeb at the captain's helm and Stacy working at some electronics. Jeb turned around to see Yvette stop and salute to him, giving all her best to honor her captain.

"What's the status?" Jeb called out gravelly.

"The plan didn't go quite as hoped, sir," said Yvette in her monotone fashion, "We opened up the portal, but the beings that emerged were unexpected. Instead of what he wanted, we got two kids who were fighting each other. One of them is friendly and will most likely understand what we did, the other is hostile and killed two of our own before we took him down."

"You kill him?"

"No, sir. We just sedated him. He should be sleeping right now."

"Good. Which ones died?"

"That would be Casey and Donald, sir."

"What!" screeched Stacy, her face showed pain as she heard the news. "They killed the cook? But how are we going to eat now?"

"Stacy, there are other people on this ship that know how to cook."

"Yeah….but not as good as her," she said pouting and puffing out her cheeks.

"What troubles me is Donald's death," said Jeb, ignoring Stacy's outburst.

"With our navigator gone it will be difficult to travel."

"Yeah, but you can take his roll right cap'n?" said Stacy.

"I can at least guide us, but Donald was the expert. I'm afraid I may be a bit rusty."

"When should we schedule the funeral sir?" interrupted Yvette, acting as if Stacy's conversation never happened.

"How bad are the bodies?"

"Bloody and unrecognizable, sir."

"Then scrape them into the onboard coffins, we'll hold a quick funeral for them in the observatory. I want them off my ship as soon as possible, don't want them stinking it up with their corpses."

"Right, sir," saluted Yvette as she turned about face and marched out of the bridge. Jeb turned back to his post, and quickly glanced at Stacy who let out a small uncomfortable laugh before getting busy with whatever she was doing before.

* * *

An hour later the captain went on the intercom and announced for all personal to come to the observation deck. The workers were confused, they did not know why everyone had to be there, but a few of them had guessed that it had to do with the strange noise they heard an hour or two before. Nevertheless, the crew ran quickly to the observation deck and gathered together. The observation deck was the place that Yvette had took Lee to, the big domed glass room. The glass was uber thick and tough, it would take a full on collision from a battle fighter 3000 to even crack the glass. The crew murmured among each other, rumors spreading throughout the room. The intercom squeaked, signaling everyone that the captain was about to speak.

"Today is a dark day," said the captain, his voice echoeing all throughout the ship. The deep gravelly tone he used terrified the people, yet they also felt safe from him. "We have lost two great people; Casey Stomfeld, and Donald Grophnee. Both were exceptional people who lost their lives too early. As we shoot out the caskets let us all have a moment of silence for our comrads."

Everyone looked at each other, murmurings of what happened to them flying around when out in front of them they saw two brilliantly white caskets float into the depths of space. Everyone fell silent out of respect, each remembering how great Casey and Donald were. Once the caskets were out of view the crew started to get restless. A death has never happened on the ship before, and to make matters even grimmer they had no idea how they died. Questions started flying through the observation deck. Is there an assailant on board? Why is the captain keeping this vague? Are they in danger?

The intercom squeaked again, the captain's deep voice silencing everyone, "Thank you for a wonderful funeral, you may all go back to your positions now."

With that, the crew mostly dismissed their paranoid ideas as they walked back to their posts. The funeral was a nice break for the day, but one it was over work flooded their minds. Not many still had questions about how sketchy the funeral had seemed and cloak and dagger.

Back on the bridge captain Jeb clicked on the personal communications to the exit bay.

"Thank you Humberto, you dressed the caskets nicely and made a well send off."

"Any time cap."

Jeb clicked the transmission off, with that out of the way he had a ship to fly. Yvette stood behind him, still in the same position when she was watching the funeral. Jeb turned to her and said, "You said that the hostile one was unconscious, go down and run some tests on him while we have him docile. I want to know everything about him."

"Yes, sir."

Yvette turned her heals and headed into the maze of corridors. There were so many corridors that even the crew got lost from time to time. So many were just too much to map out, but Yvette for some unknown reason was able to remember every turn, every curve, and every dead end. She was guaranteed to take you the fastest way. And in just under ten minutes she arrived at the containment bay, it housed medical and research tools, it also was the ship's mortuary. It was the only place where they would be able to dissect him and contain him through restraints.

Walking through the doors, which let out a loud hiss, Yvette stopped dead in her tracks at the sight that she saw. The table that Gaara was supposed to be on was torn and bent apart, the lighting was slashed and hanging from the ceiling by a thread with the light flickering on and off, sending the room from dimly lit to pitch black. Marks were gorged into the ship all around the room. On the floor Yvette saw the mutilated bodies of some of the crew, _they must have tried to stop him._

"What kind of monster is he?" she said to herself. After another look around the room Yvette slipped out of her heels and ran down the corridor as fast as she could. Her muscles were pumping blood and starting to hurt, she had to get to the bridge and warn the captain, but that's when it happened. She collapsed onto the ground with her hands to her ears trying to block out the insane high pitched laughter that erupted throughout the whole ship. She was paralyzed, her body shaking with fear from that horrible laugh. Her face contorted as a blast of wind was shot through the corridors. She had to close her eyes since sand was mixed into the wind, then her heart dropped. A thunderous pop rang and echoed in the ship, a sound that everyone dreaded. It was the sound of the engines dying and the _Nevermore_ being set adrift. Yvette let go of her ears, feeling her wet face. She didn't notice that she had been crying, but she had to get to the bridge. She tried to stand, but her body wasn't ready as it wobbled and she needed to hold onto the wall for support, and that's when the power started to flicker. The lights dimmed and turned red, a loud alarm rang inside the ship, and Yvette sank to the floor again melting into a crying fit as fear engulfed her heart.

* * *

On the bridge, Jeb was barking orders and everyone was all hands on deck. He had no idea what was happening, but it wasn't good. The ship was adrift and the power was set to emergency. They'd be able to have eight hours of air with the emergency systems, but it wouldn't matter if there were no planets in their line of drift.

"Qubert, give me any news on planets in our trajectory."

"Sir, there appears to be an abandoned planet, we are not fully on its path, but if my calculations are correct we may be able to hit it's gravitational field and it will pull us toward it."

"What's the ETA of that?"

"A few minutes sir. Normally we'd just bypass it, going too fast for the gravitational field to affect us, but being adrift may be our advantage."

"Good," Jeb said with the calmness of a seasoned captain. He switched on the intercom and a loud sqeak echoed throughout the darkened ship. "To all hands on the _Nevermore_ , a disaster has occurred and we are adrift. There is a possibility that we will be able to land on a close planet; however, that means we will be crash landing. In the next few minutes we will hit a gravitational pull, I want everyone to brace themselves and may Volstab be with all of you."

Jeb turned off the intercom and grabbed the railing, readying himself for the tug. In less than two minutes the ship lurched and creaked from the gravitational pull of the planet, the ship swung sideways and everyone on board hung onto something for dear life. Jeb saw the planet coming into focus from his view, and he thanked Volstab that it was the abandoned mining planet Apostophis. Covered with nothing but dead lands and sand he was glad that he wasn't crashing his ship into a populated area. The crew on the bridge all closed their eyes as the _Nevermore_ entered Apostophis' atmosphere, fire erupting around it. Jeb stood firm and his grip firmer as he watched the ground come closer and closer. He kept his eyes open throughout the whole ordeal as the ship finally ended its descent by brutally crash landing into Apostophis' desert.


	3. Chapter 3

**I would like to thank "Me" and "shade25" without your reviews I probably would have just left this to die. Now I am off my ass and for anyone who does enjoy this please comment, they're like drugs to writers. Even if you say "good" it will floor me to write another chapter, so remember to follow/comment and most of all have fun with this story :)**

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Chapter Three

Nobody Would Know You Screamed Part II

P.S. Listening to "Storm is Coming" from the Mad Max Fury Road album really sets the mood.

* * *

Yvette was petrified. Her mind was letting the fear in as the quakes got closer to her. Her face was so wet, and tears were never ending as they streamlined down her cheeks, so much so that her vision was fuzzy. A growl startled her. It came from deep into the ship, but Yvette's mind was playing tricks on her. She was imagining the creature behind her, readying its sharp claws to dig into her back so she could scream her final breath before passing on, but in reality only the cold air of the ship and darkness were behind her. The growl had come from deep in the ship away from her. But while she was safe, the crew was not.

Workers screamed and scrambled about. Trying to get to any form of communication to alert the Captain, but to no avail. Sand erupted around them, they were having trouble moving as they wiggled and spat at the cursed sand. No one knew where it came from, only that it seemed to be leaking from the ceiling and filling the room. Instead of drowning in water, many of the workers thought that they'd drown from sand; if only they were that lucky. They screamed and called for help, knowing full well there was a slim chance at getting heard, and that's when all hell broke loose.

The sand was starting to swirl around each worker, making tiny 'sand'pools, if you will. The men were getting dizzy as their bodies slowly sunk into the sea of sand. They tried pulling themselves up, but the sand just sucked in their hands and arms too. It was futile, and the more their bodies disappeared under the surface, the more pressure was put on them. Their screams went higher and higher until the sand was around their necks. Fingers poking out of the top of the sand, and then their voices hit a fever pitch and cracked, along with their bones and organs as their last wails of terror echoed throughout the ship. The sea of sand turned a rusted color as it receded, leaving five dead bodies.

* * *

The ship was entering Apostophis' atmosphere, heating up the exterior. Inside, people were fight for their lives as waves upon waves of sand descended throughout the corridors of the _Nevermore_. Yvette still stayed in her spot, ready to brace for impact and let the whole ordeal be over with, then one of two things happened. The first was that the sand was around her ankles and she could do nothing about it. It gripped her ankles as if they were hands, it scared her. It hurt her. The sand gathered around her, growing in size, as her ears picked up the soft thuds of footsteps coming closer and closer to her. She wanted to scream, but couldn't. She was not in control of her body. Then, the thing came around the corner. It was horrible. Its eyes were yellow and it had a sand body with veins across it. A gigantic tail trailed behind it with what looked like sharp spikes jutting out from odd angles. Its arms were skinny and long ending in thick deformed hands. Fingers were not visible, just random things jutting out posing as them. To make matters worse Yvette could see that the creature had two human legs where the sand didn't reach. Her heart started to beat faster and faster as she finally realized that the boy they had been holding was the creature, and worse was the fact that his eyes looked hungry. He wanted to fight, he wanted to kill, God he wanted blood! Yvette opened her mouth shakily as one of his deformed arms came out and snatched her, his sand encompassing her torso, and just as she let out an unholy wail of terror the ship thundered and jolted as it crashed landed.

* * *

Jeb held his head trying not to make the ship spin anymore, even though they had touched sand moments ago. His vision was blurry as he tried to look around the cockpit.

"Status!" he shouted finally so that he could hear how everyone was than depend on his faulty eyesight. A steady chorus of 'here' rang out as everyone was accountable. Luckily. everyone was alright in the cockpit. A few had scrapes and cuts, but nothing serious. Everyone flinched as an explosion could be heard throughout the ship. Jeb looked up as a shadow was cast over them, and his jaw dropped at what he saw. Above his ship was a creature purely made of sand. It towered too many stories to count high as it opened its maw and howled a congratulatory 'good morning!' It was so loud that the crew had to cover their ears just so they wouldn't temporarily go deaf.

* * *

Deep in the ship Lee's eyes awoke from hearing a screeching scream pierce through all the technology and fry the systems causing an alarm to go off. His hands instinctively covered his ears as he tried to process what was going on.

* * *

Gaara stepped out of the ship and onto the desert. His footfall caused a shockwave on the ground that shattered all the windows that didn't crack upon impact. Jeb looked on in horror as the creature took another step and another, but what put his heart on ice was the fact that he could see a limp body in the creature's grasp; Yvette. Blood drained form his head as his heart ran cold. His chest pumped in and out as the anger was seeping in, Jeb's eyes hardened as he analyzed his situation before shouting out commands.

"Stacy! I want an update on the ship stat! Humberto—"

"Yeah, I know. Got it," said Humberto as he rushed into the depths of the ship. His legs burned. They were bruised and cut from the crash, a nice steady stream of blood trickling out, but Humberto pushed on. He passed destroyed passageways and turned corners to get back to his room. While running he heard the screech of the sand creature again. He had to cover his ears in fear that he would be temporarily deaf.

Finally, he burst into his door, accidentally ripping said door of its hinges.

"Aw, crap," he muttered.

But there was no time to focus on that. Humberto threw the door to the side and opened his metallic closet to see all his security gear. He tossed his enhancement suit on the bed, making sure everything was laid out in order, and stopped when he saw a little wooden box at the bottom of his closet. In his head a heated debate begun. He remembered the side effects from when he was younger, using the serum had affected him greatly, and the most noticeable difference was his eyes turning purple and his whites yellow. But this situation was dire. He could only surmise how strong the sand creature was, but he guessed he would be underestimating it. So without hesitation he opened up the box, took out the syringe with the turquoise liquid, pulled up his sleeve, took in a breath, and injected himself. He wriggled on the floor as the serum entered his bloodstream. It was always painful when it enters you, but his eyes widened his the purple/yellow colored eyes glowed as his veins stuck out from all over his body. Humberto quickly put on his metallic suit. From head to toe he was covered in flexible metal that was nearly unbreakable. His face was left open so that he could put on his glass mask, but he left it behind since the planet had been engineered to produce air. So with a battle cry Humberto left his room and headed topside to confront the sand monster.

* * *

Lee could hear yelling all around him, but what really got his attention in his dizzy induced state was the stench. He was deep enough that he could smell the dead bodies that plagued the innards of the _Nevermore._ That coppery smell of blood, the putrid

stench of the freshly dead, he felt sick. He just sat upright as his head stopped spinning. He didn't feel good, and he wasn't exactly sure what was going on. Then, the yelling appeared again. He looked up to see a few men running, or limping, their way passed his room. Lee slowly put his feet to the floor, testing his strength out. To his relief he could stand without feeling bad. His body was feeling much better, but it was his head that hurt. A red flashing light pulsed through the room and the halls, and he didn't feel that familiar thrum of machines working in the ship. Something was wrong, and Lee could feel it in his bones. He took a few deep breaths before he ran out into the hallway and tried to find someone who could tell him what was going on.

* * *

"RRRAAAAHHH!" Gaara's possessed form screeched with glee as he stomped his way onto the planet. "I haven't been awake in so long, hm?"

Below his eyes detected quick movement. Humberto was running at break-neck speed toward Shukaku. His determination flowing off him like aura full of hate.

"HAHA straight out the gate I spy someone to kill come here bub and I'll gladly slaughter your puny ass!"

Humberto was surprised that the creature could talk, he expected a dumb powerful animal, but if speech was any indication then he might be in trouble. Not only does the enormous size boast power, but speech could mean that he was smart too. Humberto decided to test Shukaku, rather than charge him head on.

He used his suit's enhanced abilities to allow his jumps to greatly improve. The wind rushed his face as he took off into the air, his fists getting ready to punch. He activated a small button on his hand and small holes opened up where his knuckles were covered. He screamed a warrior's cry as he was approaching Shukaku's arm. Out of curiosity, and arrogance, Shukaku waited for the puny man to make the first move. He was not worried at all, and being cooped up for so long made him want to play with his target a bit. In seconds, Humberto's fist touched Shukaku, and the holes on his knuckles releasing a powerful concentrated gust of air that exploded through Shukaku's arm. Humberto's arm and body flew backwards as the recoil hit, but he smiled when he saw a small hole blown through the sand arm that he could see right through it. But that all was lost when he saw sand replacing what was lost and the arm being fully healed in no time. Humberto landed in a squatting position, ready to move if he was attacked.

Shukaku looked down on the human and chuckled to himself. _He's got spunk, I'll give him that._

"Wind Style, Air Bullets!" and with that Shukaku beat his mighty hand against his rounded belly and formed the air stored in himself to shoot out through his mouth in a wave of devastation. Humberto's eyes widened as he saw the land rip and disintegrate before him. The wave was approaching, but Humberto was strapped to the ground, he couldn't move. Fear resided in him, fear that he didn't know he had. Him, a man, to confront a demon that with just his breath could level the ground, and the area, made him feel weak in the knees. Then, he gave up. Thoughts of his uselessness swarmed inside his head, he closed his eyes ready to accept his fate, but as the force was approaching him, something flew him out of harm's way. He looked down and saw that in the side of his metal suit he saw a dent that looked like it belonged to a foot. He looked up and saw a young man, in his teens, clad in nothing but green spandex standing over him.

"Is that Gaara?" he heard Lee mumble. "Are you alright?" Lee asked turning to him.

"Uh…yes, thank you."

With a smile Lee nodded and ran off toward Shukaku. Humberto couldn't believe it. He was the seasoned fighter, he was the guy everyone looked up to, he was about to pee his pants moments ago, he was the one with the salt and pepper hair, and yet here is a kid younger than half his age who comes in and without any fear runs toward the biggest threat in Humberto's existence. Humberto gave himself shit inside his head as he was trying to psych himself back up, if a kid could face this threat without an ounce of fear surely he and could too. He watched as he saw the kid avoid Shukaku's swings with his small body and agility. While shukaku was focused on the kid, Humberto analyzed the creature. There had to be a weakness somewhere, he just had to find it. Then, he thought he saw something. He took out a pair of goggles from his industrial pocket and put them on. He magnified them, they were so powerful that he could potentially see every grain of sand of the monster, but all he needed to focus on was the creatures head. And there, in the center of the forehead, like an ugly zit, he saw the red haired killer kid limp. Humberto wasn't sure what this meant, but he was sure that the Gaara was the catalyst to this creation and thought if he could remove him then maybe, just maybe, the creature would disappear. Humberto saw Lee falling, he avoided another swipe from Shukaku, but now gravity had him.

* * *

"Boost me up!" Lee heard Humberto yell. The old man was running toward him at speeds he didn't think was achievable. Lee wasn't sure what was going on, but he trusted this man. Humberto jumped up to Lee's height landing on his outstretched leg, and with a powerful kick Lee sent him up higher. Shukaku looked a little startled as Humberto was eye to eye with him and still climbing. Then, he reached Gaara's height and he prepared his fist again. Unlike last time, when Humberto barely injured Shukaku, he wasn't going to take any chances with the kid. He murdered good people he knew for a long time, and Humberto was looking for blood. Whether the kid was already dead or not if he destroyed the body the monster would go too. He was sure of this. He pressed another button and the suit covering his arm opened a bit, letting steam out and creating these open vents. The holes opened up on his knuckles again, and he pulled back ready to punch. He could barely hear Lee shouting a protest as he figured out Humberto's actions, but it was too late. Humberto unleashed his fury and punch as hard as he could. The vents gushed out air propelling his arm and fist faster and harder into his target, but to his surprise Shukaku created a sand shield that was densely thick around Gaara. Humberto cried out in pain as the bones in his arm began to break and shatter. Shukaku smiled at his futile attempt. As Humberto began to fall back to the ground, he saw that he was just barely through the sand shield, just a few more milli-inches and he would have been through. As he feel he could see drops of blood escape from his arm vents and fall slower than him. Humberto closed his eyes again as all hope was dashed from his body.

Lee watched as Humberto's body crashed into the ground, sending up a cloud of dust. Lee ran to him, making sure Shukaku didn't finish him off as he checked Humberto's wounds.

"Sorry kid," Humberto mumbled. "There's nothing we can do now."

"Don't give up," said Lee with enthusiasm, "I think you were right that we should focus on Gaara."

"Face it, we can't get through that sand. Not me, not you. If the ship was working we could use the c— what are you doing?"

"I'm going to stop him." Lee bent his knees as he put his arms up in front of his face. _Master Guy, please give me strength!_ Humberto looked on as he noticed from all Lee's fighting there didn't appear to be any scratches or marks on his body.

"Third gate, Seimon, release!" Lee's skin began to turn red as the blood in his body was pumping beyond human speed. An invisible power surged upward around him, sending his air into the air and his eyes looked empty and dead as he was powering up. Humberto couldn't believe what he was seeing. "And while I'm at it," Lee crouched lower and a tint of green began to appear around him, "The forth gate, Shomon, release!"

Shukaku looked down in wonder at his opponent who surged in power.

"Ho Ho Ho, I feel an interesting challenge coming on." Shukaku reached down to grab Lee, but in an instant Lee bolted through the air, breaking the ground beneath him, and shooting through Shukaku's hand. Shukaku screamed in surprise as Lee was quicker than he'd ever seen him. Sand pillars and spikes erupted from Shukaku's body, trying to pierce Lee, but Lee was too quick. He was rapidly gaining on Shukaku's body and it was no surprise that he was headed for Gaara. The sand shield erupted around Gaara's body once again fully restored as Lee got to his head. Shukaku brought his hand to grap Lee again, but without hesitating Lee jumped up and kicked his hand away with great force. Shukaku roared in fury as he felt Lee punching the sand shield too fast and too powerful for him to keep restoring it. Lee was simply too fast for the sand. This time both arms came upon Lee, and taking a break from the shield, Lee leapt up and batted the arms away. But, Shukaku kept distracting Lee and the sand shield was rapidly repairing itself. Lee cursed as he could feel his muscles snapping and breaking apart. He wasn't sure if he could hold his form much longer, but he needed to stop Gaara. He would succeed even if he destroyed his body.

* * *

"Is it ready yet?" roared Jeb.

"Yes, but sir the power is in jeopardy of—"

"I don't care, what matters is stopping that thing!"

"…Then I'm ready whenever you are captain."

"Fire!"

* * *

Lee heard an enormous buzzing sound coming from the ship. Glancing at it he had just enough to time see a laser fire before he could jump to safely. The laser pushed through Shukaku's body, disintegrating the sand, and he howled in pain. Lee saw his chance and dropped onto Gaara's sand shield. He started punching, faster and faster, until his fists were bleeding, but within no time Lee was able to punch through the dense shield and with one punch he hit Gaara awake. Shukaku instantly puffed out with a giant smoke shield as both Gaara and Lee began to fall to the ground. Humberto grabbed Lee before he could hit the ground, but he left Gaara to impact and lay in the dirt and sand. Lee didn't look good in Humberto's arms. His body was all banged up and Humberto could easily see Lee's body was in bad condition. He slowly put Lee on the ground before he put all his attention on Gaara.

Gaara was awake and pissed. He was snarling and biting at Humberto. Looking down on him, Humberto could see that Gaara had a broken arm and leg, probably internal bleeding as he was coughing up blood, and many other wounds, but he was still dangerous. He really wanted to put him down, but after what he witnessed, Humberto wasn't sure if he'd like to see Lee's reaction. He'd definitely wouldn't be able to take Lee down. Instead, he used his capture option on his enhanced suit. The capture option allowed him to take off his suit and use it as a strait jacket impenetrable prison. Once Gaara was wrapped up in it Humberto felt relieved. He could see Jeb and Stacy running toward them in the distance. Once they arrived at the scene Stacy immediately began to check up on Lee's body as Jeb rushed to Humberto.

"Where's Yvette?" asked Jeb out of breath.

"Yvette? Wasn't she in the ship?"

"I saw him take her out here," Jeb said pointing to Gaara who had calmed down. "Where is she?!" he yelled in Gaara's face. He said nothing. In anger, Jeb kicked the red haired murderer in the face. To his disdain he saw a bit of sand fall off where he kicked him, Gaara wanted to attack back but his chakra was dangerously low, to see no mark left on his cheek.

"Captain, we need to get him on the ship stat," said Stacy motioning toward Lee. Jeb took in a deep breath as he looked at Gaara one more time. Gaara stared back, but was silent as he watched Jeb and Stacy lift Lee with care as they carried him to the ship.

"Guess I'm stuck taking in the trash," mumbled Humberto.

* * *

Back on the _Nevermore_ , Jeb was on the captain's deck watching the crew he had left repair the ship. Circuits were pulled from machines, and sparks flew as non-technicians tried to fix even a part of the ship to work. The energy canon they fired to stop Gaara really drained the ship. Small stuff like the infirmary and bathrooms were able to work, but a lot of the gadgets that needed a lot of energy, like the com links, just couldn't be used. Jeb guessed that it would take at least a month to repair everything from the crash.

"Captain," said one of the repairmen, Jeb nodded for him to continue, "It appears when we crashed, or when the haul was breached by that boy, that the fuel tank was ruptured. Nothing caught fire, but fuel has been leaking out for a while now. It's patched up, but I doubt we have enough to get back home."

"What about to launch?"

"Possibly, but by the time we get out of the atmosphere we'd almost immediately be sitting ducks."

"As you were," and the man left.

 _One month to repair the ship and get fuel, God help us all._


End file.
